Occupy protests discourage Black Friday shopping

KGO

November 25, 2011 11:44:32 PM PST

by Ama Daetz

SAN FRANCISCO --

Occupy protesters from San Francisco and Oakland came face to face with shoppers and police as they marched around San Francisco's Union Square area Friday. Although the protesters did not interfere with the Macy's Christmas tree lighting ceremony, at times they blocked access to stores, trying to keep people from shopping.

Protesters occupied the entrances to stores like Macy's and Saks 5th Avenue, where they didn't always get a warm welcome. But police were never far from the action, even as the demonstrators gathered at Macy's tree lighting ceremony.

"Today was a really good day to do it because people are all hyped up, looking for the sales and trying, just not thinking about people at all they're thinking about money and so it's a good day for awareness," protester Windsong said.

But not everyone at Union Square agreed.

"That's the wrong time, at the, kids don't care, this is for the kids, it's not for politics," one parent said.

"If you put your abilities toward getting a job rather than saying somebody else is doing something wrong, and maybe there is that in our nation, to spend your time and efforts into something more positive would be a better thing," parent Cory Modersohn said.

There was no trouble at the tree lighting ceremony. Once it was over, the occupiers went back to blocking store entrances, like the Apple store on Stockton Street where they used their bodies and even a little shoving to keep shoppers from getting in.

Not all protesters condoned the aggression, but Old Navy was next. The store shut down, keeping shoppers inside until the occupy movement moved on.

"We're like water; we stop in a place, they put up resistance like these blockades but they can't blockade our love," Windsong said.

Around 9 p.m. the protesters returned to their camp at Justin Herman Plaza.